Concerns continue to mount about the safety of Boeing aircraft after an incident during a Southwest flight out of Denver on Sunday forced an emergency landing.
Video of the scary incident shared on social media shows a part of the engine cowling ripping off and striking a wing flap.
In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration said Southwest Airlines Flight 3695 returned to Denver International airport Sunday morning after the crew reported the issue. The Boeing 737-800, which was heading toward William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, had to get towed to the gate.
“Let’s go ahead and declare an emergency for Southwest 3695 and we’d like an immediate return,” a crew member reportedly said to an air traffic controller, the New York Times reports. “We’ve got a piece of the engine cowling hanging off.”
Post landing pic.twitter.com/XtI4rHcj4z
— Bvrtender (@bvrtender) April 7, 2024
Just after takeoff pic.twitter.com/wVASG4Rr8S
— Bvrtender (@bvrtender) April 7, 2024
The incident is the latest in a string of problems for Boeing. The new year kicked off for the company with the Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines fiasco when a door plug blew off mid-air.
[I]t seems like every day brings a new mechanical failure for the firm, employing 170,000 people worldwide, that has left it facing an existential crisis and shaken its reputation for safety.
Since the turn of the year and near-fatal blowout in early January on an Alaskan Airlines flight, the £90billion company has seen its troubled 737 Max line suffer one mishap after another.
The company has even had to deal with the death of a whistleblower who claimed the firm was hiding institutional malpractice - and who killed himself just days after giving evidence to a corporate lawsuit brought against Boeing.
It has also been accused of letting safety lapse as it obsesses over 'woke' diversity targets in staffing, as well as over-paying executives working from home.
Current CEO Dave Calhoun announced last month he would be stepping down at the end of this year in a management overhaul, with share prices plunging.
And passengers are said to be deliberately changing flights to avoid Boeing's fleet or travelling with anti-anxiety medication.
The descent into disaster for Boeing began back in 2018 when a total of 346 people died in two crashes involving Boeing's flagship 737 MAX aircraft, on a Lion Air flight in Indonesia in October 2018 and one operated by Ethiopian Airlines the following March.
Those prompted the grounding of all Boeing 737 airlines for 21 months but hazardous glitches have continued to affect journeys on a near-daily basis, the latest coming yesterday when an engine cowling fell off a plane in the US. (Daily Mail)
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Boeing has declined to comment thus far, but the FAA said it will undertake an investigation into the airline over the latest incident.
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